More than 150 laser safety professionals and guests from academic, corporate, and government laboratories attended the 10th Department of Energy (DOE) Laser Safety Officers Workshop at LLNL from Aug. 19 to 22. Hosted by the Laboratory and NIF, the workshop was an opportunity for individuals with laser safety responsibility to update and expand their laser safety knowledge. It featured presentations on current laser applications and associated laser safety issues and solutions. The workshop also served as the annual meeting of the DOE Laser Safety Working Group.
The Keynote speaker was NIF&PS Chief Technology Officer Chris Barty, who discussed the "explosion" of intense laser activities around the world and related petawatt laser activities at LLNL. The workshop included vendor exhibits and tours of NIF and the Jupiter Laser Facility. NIF Laser Safety Officer Jamie King, the workshop’s chair, said the initial workshop was conceived and held at LLNL in 2005 after the release of the DOE Special Operations Report on Laser Safety. The report pointed out the need for refresher training and networking among laser safety officers at the DOE laboratories. Ken Barat, LSO for NIF at the time, put together the first workshop and continued to organize them each year until his retirement from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2012.
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